Wednesday, August 17, 2005

An exclusive interview with Steven Chow

NP: I AM NEON PHOSPHOR

SC: how may i help you today?

NP: WE KNOW YOU'RE PARTICULARLY CONCERNED ABOUT GETTING THE BEST AUDIO QUALITY OUT OF A WIDE RANGE OF SPEAKERS. LET'S TALK, FOR INSTANCE, ABOUT MIXING IN MONO.

SC: our music is immune to the kissing disease. listen to our album once, and you'll want to hang yourself. it's definitely not makeout music.

NP: LISTEN, SMARTASS, NOBODY GIVES NEON PHOSPHOR A HARD TIME. WHY ARE YOU CONSIDERING MIXING THE ALBUM IN MONO INSTEAD OF STEREO?

SC: ask yourself this, when have you ever had a perfectly functional set of speakers? we know that many of our listeners are driving around in old cars with speakers that don't necessarily work on both sides. one of the speakers in my car doesn't work. the left speaker on arta's car has issues with the bass end. even on my stereo at home, it's hard to get the speaker volumes balanced, because of wiring issues on the back. the most annoying thing is listening to stereo recordings where all the harmonies or cool instruments are on the stereo channel that you can't hear. finally, even when you have good speakers, they're probably not in a sonically perfect place in relation to you. when you mix in mono, you know exactly how the mix is going to sound, anywhere, on any sound system. phil spector and brian wilson always mixed in mono.

NP: ANY CHANCE YOU'LL BE COVERING MONO'S "LIFE IN MONO," THE ONE-HIT WONDER FROM THE 90'S?

SC: you never want to cover a hit song because it'll always turn out worse than the original

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